Excerpt from A Book About Authors: Reflections Recollections of a Book-WrightI had thought of modestly styling this a Book about Bookmakers, but that word has unworthy associations, and the Society of Authors licenses us all to take a higher title. One remembers the Rouen judge's dictum to Dumas when he scrupled to style himself a dramatist in the city of the great Corneille - Il-y-a des degrès, M. Dumas! And indeed what I have in mind in the following pages is that, where they are not mere makers of books, great and small authors differ from one another in degree rather than in kind.In the teeth of what has been said in his first chapter against inviting the public inside an authors door, the present writer is here fain to obtrude a personal apology. Through illness, his book had to be hurried to the press somewhat "unhousel'd, disappointed, unaneled", and the first proofs came to be corrected on a painful sick-bed, without access to works of reference. For what crossing of t's and dotting of i's may appear deficient, then, his fellow book-wrights will be able to make allowance. That all its imperfections are not still upon its head, he has to thank the care of a friend, to whose manifold helpfulness, at a time of need, he owes more than words can acknowledge.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.